


The Bearer of Bad News

by Anonymous



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Betrayal, Character Death, Gen, Horror, Not A Happy Ending, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:08:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23860594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Very dark continuation of the season 1 episode right after Cisco is murdered. Barry creates a new timeline and disappears, but the old timeline is still moving along without him.  Caitlin is stuck with an empty wheelchair in the coffee shop.
Relationships: Caitlin Snow/Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9
Collections: Anonymous





	The Bearer of Bad News

**Author's Note:**

> Been sitting on this for a while. But it’s pretty fucking dark so I never posted it. I’m a big Harrison/Caitlin fan so it’s super weird, but I kinda liked it.

Caitlin stood with two coffees in her hand facing an empty wheelchair. Dr. Wells’ glasses were left behind as well. People in the coffee shop gave her strange looks when she took off in a sprint, bursting the glass doors open and mowed down a young couple in her path. She ignored their shouts and pressed her phone to her ear. “Cisco pickup!” She yelled as it reached voicemail, and fumbled with her car door. Her fingers trembled as she dialed Barry next, holding the phone between her shoulder and ear as she threw the car into reverse, almost getting into one of many car accidents as she drove across town. 

Barry didn’t answer. She cursed and threw her phone into the passenger seat, clutching her chest. Her heart was racing. If she was thinking clearly maybe she would have considered all her options. 

Driving like a lunatic she threw the car into park hard in the middle of the parking lot, and without any weapon or care for her own life, she ran into S.T.A.R. Labs.

Her phone rang, and she glanced down.  _ Thank God.  _ “Barry! I need to talk to you. Dr. Wells-”

“There’s no time for that!” Barry’s panic filled voice stopped her immediately. 

Her head swam as he hurriedly explained.  _ A tsunami?! _ She paced the room and babbled the only thing that came to mind. All she knew was that she said the words ‘vortex barrier’. But that was all hypothetical. “I don’t know if you can run that fast.” He already hung up the phone. 

Caitlin put both hands to her head, pacing in a circle to get her wits about her again. Too many things were happening at once. 

“Cisco?” She called out, picking up her pace as she passed through the cortex. Dread filled her with each step down the corridor. The next level down was where Cisco convinced them the barrier should have held. Her hand flew to her mouth when she crossed the threshold.

Cisco laid prone on the floor. She ran to his side and fell to her knees. 

“No, no, no.” Her fingers desperately pressed to his neck while she whispered over and over. Her eyes teared as she sat back on her heels. “Cisco.” No pulse, no breathing. 

“Caitlin.” 

She whipped her head around to Dr. Wells standing in the doorway. She didn’t hear the way he said her name disapprovingly. She didn’t even care that he was  _ standing _ and walking towards her, because even if he  _ was  _ the Reverse Flash he couldn’t have done this.

“Dr. Wells, we need to get help.” She staggered to her feet. Where was her phone? Caitlin felt herself breaking apart; her mind refused to acknowledge what was so blatant.

“I thought I left a good enough warning.” He said simply, but underlaid with anger. 

“He’s dead, Caitlin.” Harrison glanced at the body. “Unfortunately, it was necessary.” 

No. She shook her head, sputtering with a hoarse laugh like she lost her mind. Her entire world wasn’t crumbling around her. Her best friend wasn’t lying dead at her feet, and man she admired more than ANYTHING didn’t kill him. 

In a flash of red lightning Harrison was in front of her, her hair blasted back with a burst of wind. “I know I owe you a lengthy explanation, but you have very poor timing.” 

Caitlin staggered back and tripped. He caught her by the front of her blouse and hefted her back on her feet. “I waited far too long to let anyone get in the way of me going home.”

Harrison Wells was a monster. Her mentor and friend. “How could you!?” Her hands helplessly tore at his fingers, trying to get him to release her. “After everything we went through. I-I-” She couldn’t finish. 

“I cared about you too, Caitlin.” His voice was so calm, and he smiled softly. “You were so loyal.” 

_ Were _ . Cisco was dead and she was next. And she was partly to blame. She didn’t do her job. She couldn’t manage to keep Dr. Wells occupied without being so damn obvious. 

The pipeline was only a few meters away. There was no way she could make it. For a regular person, adrenaline might get her there, but not against anyone with super speed. He tightened his grip, and she racked her brain for some escape plan.

“Barry.” She blurted out the name. “He’s in trouble.”

Harrison’s eyes narrowed. “What about Barry?”

She lowered her head, “A...a tsunami,” he instinctively leaned down to better understand her mumbling. Caitlin quickly raised her knee into his groin, then struck him as hard as she could. He grunted in pain and loosened his grip enough for her to tear free and run away.

There was no way. She wouldn’t make it. The cell door couldn’t shut that quickly. He should have her by now. Why wasn’t she dead yet? Her skin tingled; it felt like static. She shivered at the sensation, then the hallway was enveloped in red lightning. 

She shielded her eyes. For a fleeting moment, she thought maybe Barry was there to save her. The thought was answered as her back collided with the interior of the pipeline cell at an unknown speed. The air was violently forced from her lungs. She fell to her knees, gasping for breath, and cringed in pain. Her high heels were even knocked off her feet. 

“Is this what you wanted?” Harrison looked down at her and motioned around them in tiny cell as the door closed behind. He chuckled, but the intense glare in his eyes didn’t match. “I didn’t expect this much fight from  **you** . Thought I’d know you better after all this time. And I left you an out. You just couldn’t take it, could you?” He spat angrily. 

She looked up at him with red-brimmed eyes full of tears. It was hard to speak as she struggled to get air. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to understand. I’m from the future, and Barry Allen is my enemy. I have nothing against you or Cisco personally.”

Her brow furrowed. “That’s your justification for murder? Are you crazy?!,” she said with such venom, hurt washed over his handsome face for a fraction of a second. “We trusted you.”

“Well, that was the idea.” His smile made her nauseous.

“We mean that little to you?” 

“You’ve been dead to me since I first laid eyes upon you.” He said gently. He could tell he confused her with his words. “Don’t get me wrong, I adore all of you, but this is a part of a grander scheme that you wouldn’t understand.”

“That's a lie!” She shouted. 

“I never lied to you. Did you think saving your fiancé was for my benefit? I even offered you a different job after the particle accelerator explosion, didn't I? But  _ you _ wanted to stay with me.”

_ No _ . This was worse. She'd rather this was all done for malevolent purposes. She wanted him not to care.

“It’s okay,” he soothed with the same voice he used to calm her for years. “Cisco cried too. I can make this relatively painless.”

There was no way out. He took to a knee in front of her. She was going to die. 

“There it is,” his hand pushed back her hair and she didn’t even flinch. “The acceptance of your fate. It makes this so much easier.” He looked over her face lovingly. She swallowed back the bile rising in her throat. It made her heart flutter, how badly she wished he looked at her like this before. “I didn’t want it to be this way.” He smiled. 

His hand begin to vibrate and she shook her head, trying to push herself back, but there was no where to go. The last bit of fight left in her rose to the surface. Don’t make it easy. 

She screamed so loudly he winced, and continued to do so when he attempted to silence her. Caitlin knew no one would hear or help her. When she kicked it didn’t have the stiletto impact she’d like, in fact, it was disconcertingly intimate. Each shriek was more ear piercing than the last and made her throat raw. His hand covered her mouth slamming her head to the floor, muffling her scream as he pinned her down with his body. Why? He could have killed her already. He grit his teeth, angry at her outburst and hesitated. 

Did he not want it to go down like this? Good. She never stopped struggling, happy that it seemed to upset him more. As if she was supposed to make this easy for him. He snarled her name. She hoped he was disappointed for her going out like this. But she couldn’t hear it over the smothered wails and her own heartbeat deafening in her ears. She flailed viciously. Maybe she could at least gouge out his stupid blue eyes from his handsome face. He easily dodged her nails with his speed. In their struggle, his knee pressed between her legs. She sucked in a sharp breath and jerked. She saw the confusion in his eyes as they darted to hers. 

For a second, Caitlin thought he changed his mind. She dreamt of a moment like this before, but pleasurable. It was almost laughable. 

Burning pain erupted in her right shoulder, what did he do? Her arm fell limp to her side, while the other was safely pinned with his other hand. His palm pressed down harder on her lips, making it more difficult to breathe. Did he just internally shred the muscles and ligaments in her arm?

“Caitlin,” he growled her name again. His eyes glowed red. Hers were wide in pain and fear. She still shrieked her throat raw behind his palm. God her arm hurt, tears coming down her eyes as she attempted to move it. She twisted her body beneath him. Adrenaline waned. 

Finally, Caitlin jerked in agony as he stabbed her chest. It wasn’t as quick as she thought it would be. The warmth of his hand left her lips. She forgot how to scream; the pain overwhelmed all her senses at once and then disappeared. He appeared to be speaking, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Her vision immediately blackened as her body went into shock. She couldn't feel his thumb brush away tears that tracked down her face. She hoped the last thing he saw in her eyes was hate and betrayal and she hoped it haunted him for centuries.

Harrison Wells, or Eobard Thawne, clenched his fist as he looked at the lifeless body beneath him.   


“Fuck.” 

Her shirt was half torn off in the struggle, and her skirt rode up to her hips. He opened the unlocked pipeline door and picked up her body. There was only one thought that he desperately clung to.

All of this will be worth it. It _ has _ to be.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I originally had it even darker(more sexual) and I was like, maybe that’s too much?


End file.
